Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

The World Bank provides a picture of the strength of Finland’s economyat the projected time of carbon neutrality, compared to present day:➢ Evidence: Transitioning to a low carbon economy will require evidenceof economic, social and environmental benefits for business leaders,politicians and the community. Finns consider themselves as leadersin energy efficiency. This sentiment has been mapped onto the challenge ofclimate change, affecting the ambition of leadership across sectors.➢ Policy: Any durable climate change policies will need to blend "carrots"and "sticks" so as to spur new economic activity while ensuring regulatorycompliance. With little time to prototype new solutions, impact needsto occur rapidly. The government will need market-based instruments aswell as policies to level the field, allowing the entry of new technologies andnew approaches.➢ Mobility: Reversing/redirecting the rapidly increasing personal automobileuse (up 60% 1980-2000), while public transport usage rates remains flat.➢ Energy Efficiency: Finland has already invested significant capital toachieve high levels of efficiency in its energy production and built environment.The low hanging fruit of energy efficiency models available to othercountries, those which make quick gains at low costs, is not viable in theFinnish context. Additionally, the turnover of the country's existing capitalstock will take time, as many of the investments are recent. Achieving adramatic reduction in carbon emissions will principally require systemicchange; incremental improvement to Finland's energy production systemsand usage will achieve limited gains.➢ Durability: Because political guidance and accountability are indispensableto sustainability, changes to policy and incentive systems must bemade durable enough to survive many political cycles.➢ Consumption: The EU is moving toward product-based climatechange mitigation policies that will account for the energy and naturalresources used throughout the product's life cycle. The implementation ofa labelling system tracing the footprint of goods sold into the Europeanmarket (One-third of the global market) back to the point of manufacture islikely. Strategies such as "eco-labelling" will help mitigate so-called carbonleakage, and have the potential to force real change outside of Europe.➢ Density: Changes to land use (primarily with regard to sprawl), whichhave increased transportation emissions and formed lose urban dwellingefficiencies, have put downward pressure on Finland’s national carbon sinkand upward pressure on carbon emissions.➢ Funding Change: Great ideas can provoke change, but without stablefunding streams, such changes are likely to be fleeting. The demand for213